'The Insider' Co-Host Kevin Frazier On Celebrities

12/24/2012 8:58AM

Kevin Frazier, Co-Host of "The Insider" and the founder of hiphollywood.com, talks to the WSJ's "Business of Celebrity" show host Lee Hawkins about his work on ESPN, Entertainment Tonight and a host of other roles he played before joining "The Insider."

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... I ... I ... while entertainment ... you likely don't care free ... as co anchor of the inside the entertainment ... culture magazine show on TBS ... it made its broadcast ... to millions of home every night ... but as much as three years the whole ... thing to do with ... having built an entire business around celebrity interviews ... founder of the Hollywood hottie ... I've talked to Kevin doing one of his recent trip to New York City ... in truth the ... whole ... point ... people on all that about you ... what is interesting because the thing people see on TV may be figured that switch and do you on TV and that's and I find that you know ... there's so much more ... to the whole entertainment business and also multimedia was that we should be doing ... that we all need to just over his face on how to ... write in you go back all the way to being a sports journalist said ... We Kaine's Adriana Kammerman ... live as are beginning to get a camera as a care manager of the CBD in Charleston Channel two and now ... you know it was a great way to learn the business is I don't think there's there's so many people who ... know they say on the hopes that something ... that I'm a whole we need to understand how everything works and I shot video with an email cotton and it's up to this day I can put up a live shot I can shoot in my age only good snake is when I get Mandel say ... hey I'm always use the camera man just you know that the dollar ... to go back to doing that tomorrow so how did you make that transition from cameramen into actual journal ... what you know I started when I was in Charleston I would shoot wild stories of the night I moved to Baltimore where move the ball was doing the same as working on like the Saturday ... evening sports show called sports unlimited would ... come on in in one story we couldn't shoot myself and finally ... I got to Cincinnati Ohio whereas the weekend sports anchor of the XII acts and so ... it's a journey but it's been a great journey because I feel like ... people have to love ... this craft of love doing the shuttle of putting together pictures and words and understand how would put together to tell great stories and I think sometimes it's a lost art ... I just wish he would do that more to come and ... study in learned this game don't riskiness a ... jump in and be on the entire everybody's with the help of private care would be like hey I'm here it's me ... was so so ... that's not that's not really what it's about ... I'm you cut your teeth as a as a sports journalist and how did you do then transition into entertainment news and how to help the U S exports and ... I was working for ESPN ... and I got a call from Asian she said hey I'm ... James and I would like to ... sit down with you know what will come up to one ... why not join the NBA I have a great game but not that ... bad until you meet them I mean what what we want ... ahead of me reading it I sat down and the median ... I met with Linda Bell Blue who was the ... executive producer of entertainment tonight ... we talk to when I was gonna walk to a meeting called wages ... you know enough of lamenting ... what was it about the MENA region and feeling to ... know in ... this way so where a lot of people but ... Entertainment tonight ... is the biggest news entertainment news magazines were all in on the ... good night on SportsCenter which ... are you know I was on SportsCenter the pinnacle for many sports ... will get you know ... a one rating you know maybe you know one rating or maybe even better ... every single night at the time ... entertainment on trading is explained ... away a one rating sold million people million house depending on the table but what radio million retooling people are watching ... every single night entertainment I was getting at that time six or seven three inches like this is just a bigger world it's the network it's you know it's a different animal ... and so was a great challenge I want to try and do a course in the very influential twenty five to fifty four demographic ... you guys are keen any The MP ... so it's a it's a different kind of genre it was but at the same time it was ... you're talking about entertainment ... basketball football baseball ... and entertainment so was talk about entertainment ... so is it was great for me is a great transaction ... you're ... reeling from a new engine Hampton University they're ... taking a bet going on what was it like for you and you think that he would become a journalist I know your father was a basket ... yet my Dell's Avast Wilco show we moved around a little bit because his basketball coach and if you ask me what I'm trained to do when people say oh when you train you ... oh she said ... I'm trained to be a basketball coach and that was my life and ... it was great because ... I spent my life like going to practice everyday were ... on there for me in the practice on the weekends and some are going to basketball camp ... in the evenings going to games was fully immersed in the sport so ... it was amazing and the same time ... you know ... my mother was the athletic director high school so I was with my data was a mime with my mom ... and athletic events are always felt like ... that was my calling that was my call and just so happened that ... one summer ... my dad got me a job working in the Pentagon ... and others in the mail ... I was in the op and then head of adjusted great job but I was in the mail room ... and that ... my ... girlfriend ... and she was up in this thing called the visual recording facility he was a full on TV production studios like ... that's what I wanted to let go of fear and try that ... their work therein was great and I fell in love with you know them well with this and so ... he just did something that grew out of that it is weird because honestly you guessed it should be sent on a bench ... coaching basketball and I had an eighteen year olds in recruiting ... and when you get entertainment news is become more more popular ... up guys like you some of your colleagues them your contemporaries Haugen Reverend Billy bullish Ryan Seacrest ... Steve Harvey and we have one thing in common ... they've built great brands ... in and they're moving into entertainment moguls that snow ... that seems to be what you're doing with on with your website in Hollywood ... I wanna ask you would you attribute to why do all you guys ... meet that push to become watcher and was in some capacity what I mean I'm flattered I can be ... considered in that group because those guys are are like ... when I think of Steve Ryan into ... their mobiles they really do have ... all the small table platforms that you can ... hear them and see them on every year positioning yourself to do the same tree well a little bit but for me the Hollywood thing started out of ... I felt that there was a need for there to be Obel waits for African American entertainers and ... no I what I do every day on the insiders' sell movies books ... TV shows and other things in the entertainment space and I just felt like there was a boy ... for African Americans and I think there were a lot of websites that were doing ... the gossipy thing but I don't think there were people who were covering with video and sitting down with the entertainers and covering their movies and shows and stuff like that ... so I started to Hollywood out of that frustration because ... I work very mainstream show all I'd I love my show and I get in ... there needs to be a space for that there's Univision ... I'd feel the needs of the US base that covers what entertainment I don't think right now ... the ... cable stations there are haven't entertainment for is that covers the show is so funny because if you look back at the election ... we saw how important this demographic explosion ... I really isn't very lucrative ... of base of consumers in viewers that year cater for what they don't say on election night I was very proud to turn on TV one and see them ... doing election night coverage as varied and turned the team see them doing election night coverage because in the past they haven't done that I think it's important that ... all segments the cover not just you know there's a PC does NBC there's there's you division there was no Telemundo ... I think that the ... you want to point that they get in free in the next ... what we're talking really about his musicians and fine you're an inch an hour one of the ones that slipped in and really exploded with TMZ are fighting harder Harvey Levin ... there are a lot of people that dismissed it and didn't KPMG seriously but they've broken some of the biggest stories of the decade ... Michael Jackson Whitney Houston ... Mel Gibson ... Tiger Woods why have they become so much of a force and what's it like to keep eating and what they did when you think of TMZ have to think of ... to separate the ... TMZ is ... and they go after stories and trying to get people there's no concern about whether you'll be all sit down with anyone ... you'll ever see TMZ sitting down doing an interview with me on what they don't they know ... the truth ... but as of today ... today I you don't see you what you see it you see them talking to people as they're walking in the airport is to walk into a door or is that you know going in the door outdoor ... you don't really see ... them going on a movie set or TV show and so we do we cover the entertainment business ... does some of our are some of our stories can ... lead over sure they do ... aam I think with the deal when Harvey is done in the empire he still is ... and ... I congratulate him and I think it has changed the way we all cover stop ... at the same time I think it is ... a little different from what we do rang we will go where there were to sit down with Tom cruise ... with his movie comes out in Dubai ... TMZ is going to talk to Tom Cruise was coming out the door getting into a community access the thinking ... right now I'm not saying that it's better I'm saying it's different because they do a whole the job ... of breaking stories and that's where they focus their attention it's been very lucrative for them ... so I'm in no way my action was taken ... until he had a great slogan for your website is one that I wish I could use on my show ... tell me what it is and what that means ... what it's not that we don't talk about the size we talk to them in the reason is is that when we go we sit down we talk to them and the reason one the other reason to start with how it was I was going to usher in a few one day ... and I saw in one go urban website saw the story that someone a post about ... usher is leading to be cut and ... this is early on in their marriage usher leading to Mika we got it were breaking news and I think all the person ran the website said listen ... I was just was ushered into me and the baby ... and is doing a photoshoot and he's not leaving or ... he should take that back in she said to be sure but I know I know what I'm talking about ... the Dow's like ... I was just talking to him I was sitting with him I was interviewing him ... so that would really for me I realize that I have to be proactive and put my money will amount to his angle out say ... I will deliver to this urban audience something and ... not just pictures the video will actually sit down with the people I talk to them ... so if it's like the OBE as well coming up the OB was in our loft the other day we talk to the OB no while that might not be something for the insider is great for the urban audiences Files Hollywood support and were talking to ... the people when something happens ... we don't talk ... you have the excess because you've built a relationship with them and at some point when Chris Brown gets into a controversy or ... the next person ... that could be valuable to every back ... short it is valuable to everybody but also in between that controversy because it would buy a house or a customer can argue with that in that time write that that's not the first time in covering that when Chris Brown was that when these video when they were shooting put it down ... we were there were doing that because we also feel that it's important to ... push our stats were weak upper branded with brandy doesn't show somewhere ... were covering brandy ... so ... you may not see on the mainstream ... but that doesn't mean there's not a huge audience for these people that want to see what they did and you have plenty of role models to look at John Jackson had been relieved of Bob Jackson ... who founded Black Entertainment ... television Tyler here he's going to be a ... massive audience boost with the same model have you used any of these guys as mentors and no question John Johnson begin with John just because here's a man who ... saw ... kind of ... get an epiphany that ... there should be something that serves African Americans and he didnt on where ... there were there wasn't any funding to be his mother gave him a walled off some furniture so that he could then start his first magazine in which he built in chat in Ebony you know growing up from the ... the weather is my grandparents when was the barbershop ever were when he was jet that was admitting he calls it right into what that that was important because you know what he showed us ... it showed us ... positive images of African Americans doing things we normally when you see anywhere else ... you would open something out its CEO Toro middle-class Mike's house or ... you don't read about the African American congressman from Ohio Mr Stokes in what he's going ... to look for things that we would pick up every weekend Chad or been in the most important because they reminded us how important ... we are in this whole scheme of things that any action there ... you don't use the person he said ... look at these beautiful black women on a runway ... and when you normally wouldn't see that at the time when I was growing up that was integrated deciding what I was younger you can see that so that was important Sell to Hold Johnson family especially Mr. Johnson ... I owe a huge ... debt too because what he's done and what he thing ... you've got some content that can be very valuable chew on the line for um I'm thinking one day and when you tweet or press release ... or something that says ... Kevin Fraser just in a multimillion dollar deal with the CEO of hip Hollywood is that your goal ... my goal was never to build upon it with the style of Hollywood it really was ... to build this outlet ... for African American arts that's been a really ... what crazy having some time ... because I do see that there is interest from other places we've been contacted by people and people look at our library we say ... will you allow stuff I mean you know we were in the room the day before Whitney Houston passed away ... we agree Video her walking around and playing around with these issues are real intellectual property right that is great stuff and we have all we have up ... about a three-year catalog of ... every ... American stock so we into just in time ... to sit on but I mean it with a network of deal or deals with it and do special things with the could you see this as a syndicated TV show and ... I would love for to be a syndicated TV show one day and I think it ... does is space for it you know I always think back to ... the shows you know I think of the ... revolution that happen when BP came on ... and on the since it would come on video sold every night for ... the dole ... given ... the news would come more of the tea was like ... this is Brett ... missionary I can't believe it in you know you would see the stuff in it but ... that score because and remember that time ... MTV wasn't playing ... actor Director artist PBOC was one of those things where you would literally call your family and safety Michael Jackson's on TV ... there was always in the living and built a big big deal until it was just revolutionary and so now I just think it's ... important to have something that people ... can turn one of the obstacles to getting on TV why haven't done so far ... the prior the biggest obstacle is me ... and ... my schedule and the way ... things work email right now we have to deal with TV one and we do on review for a second innings to tools every night for TV one ... and that's been a great relationship and it's been a chance for us to ... get TV access to some of our content and also ... it's been a chance for artists out there to get an ... up close on TV so that's been good and and to refer back ... to a web space we go ... so I'll have been the biggest obstacle ... I'm I've been ... busy ... it's crazy ... I can imagine that you're aged win and instead we wanna do this to power with being in ... and they agreed to do it because maybe he it didn't seem to be that big of a deal that that point is that what happened while because most people don't have the freedom ... to be in their contract to be will go out ... and start a business like this what what for me it's like the Domino's apologists fall into the right places at the right time and also ... you know I think that people ... look at the Hollywood they say ... this is a great thing it's cool cool and we're going to doing it because it doesn't really ... infringe on other specs ... and so I think it's okay and then also I'm I'm glad that people CBS that people work with it the insider ... they see the value of what I do in their times were they ... will say hey I saw which the shepherd of Hollywood ... with less ... about what can I say of course you can because you know it the ended the day and this is in your people like what did you make a lot of money or you don't like ... mill which no one ... it is important ... we talked about this the Guinea get ... syndicated TV love this person ... got some tension that they can speaking of syndicated TV I mean at ten years ago the dream ... for any entrepreneur in television was to get this deal that overhead you know hundred thousand dollars a week from thirty or forty ... different stations every single week to the point that you're going to be a billionaire went to ... the money isn't ... we're used to be now what I think that that money is there but it's in different places and keep left understand how the good and I mean ... you know if you look at the TMZ model it is an interesting lot of the cousins TV and internet ... and you know at the insider starting in January our partnership with Yahoo and OMG kicks and so it's going to be a different kind of partnership because ... we are now ... leveraging their power on the way out along with our our TV and that's where I think people start looking ... I think people fell in love with the old school model TV in the way to work and people got rich because it was ... easy when she got it ... in and went a little different and there's a revolution happening production is changing you don't need fifty million dollars in the NL ... two hundred thousand dollar cameras and all that which means you need ... good quality content and good quality people writing it ... there are other ways now ... to produce ... decent and that people consume TV much much different ... word home or Sedona I packed into a ... TV on election night I had my I phone my I pad and my computer going because I wanted to watch ... the real different things and see all the difference is ... that on TV ... my wife was watching Showtime ... as the kids ok because I'm watching all the election coverage ... through the devices that I have seen him ... it's where the school ... one other fascinating thing is that when you look at someone who's twenty five or younger ... they're watching most of their content on the computer ... but this is a phenomenon that a lot of a ... massive TV personalities haven't caught on to you because they are not robust on the internet where is their very robust ... every night on TV you seem to get what I'd I just think that ... if you're able to produce your own car to Europe making also you're able to communicate with people watch you ... like ... everyday I am flattered when someone will hit me on Twitter or send me a message or something like that too E-mail just as a whole lot War I like this I did like this guy get all the fabulous at it like that ... it's okay because you know with the two time other day and we can communicate it's amazing that all this and you can communicate directly with those people very quickly ... the reader Twitter feed to your Facebook The stuff like that you can also give them ... very easily ... and so it's ... no longer is are we isolated and is tax ones like ... the star of the show notes like amended ... you heard it ... here we are in a deal ... people can watch this ... you know you are doing your home TV production applaud you for having Show ... Wall Street Journal I watch it because ... it's easy for me was I didn't ... grab my phone and I can watch which are talking about ... it ... it educates me I can learn things and I didn't have to do any appointment TV ... so the world is changing everybody is ... kind of ... embrace which change ... don't get scared ... don't freak out a few races ... you build a brand you're building a business you ever at some point look back at your sports journalism in the man I mean this thing this is ... this entertainment thing ... is in a substantive is in a series and I you criticize them ... I think sometimes I'll see and this is interesting ... man I always see man who because now I work for the insider which is you know in entertainment is a female driven genre ... so I will see many rules that they will look at what ... would it do it now ... that was wrong with you that ESPN are you crazy ... but then their wife or their mother will know the biggest ever Frasier a cabin so glad to see you ... so it's interesting the balance between the two and that's why I still do college football and I make sports and in my life you know ... it's it's fun for me I would do ... everything I hate to sound greedy but I do one into everything in every day ... I think there's an opportunity in it's ... it's a discussion on how ... all the time it early in my brain but with other people around me all my team ... everyday we are afforded the opportunity for excellence were stakes were so lucky we get the stains can we can do ... anything we wanted ... if we're willing to work ... alright so what did I mean you you hear so many things that you've done but from a business standpoint there's more that you can do what with that ... you know what this is been the greatest writer ... been on my life has been an incredible right and so I don't sit down and sat in five years amid be here because ... I where I have now had no expectations that you know so ... it's really ... I'm always open to opportunity and once you know when ... when opportunity comes you take them but ... everyday ... and I've tried to tell this to ... the people I work with two is like everyday ... really I need to focus on one tool ... you can do the best thing that ... people get so preoccupied with what two years old boy here and then after that I better be earned six months of like today ... he is good as can be that where I am right now given him alleging ... that the present because you're too busy looking into this now ... so I was more reliable than Mrs worldly and this is what we're doing this is ... like drinking that's fine but today when use today ... the job correctly ... respect that job today job and don't worry the other stuff cos you know in the celebrity and entertainment news is one of those things that attracts ... a lot of attention particularly from young people ... everybody wants to do that ... what is it ... that you see that the public doesn't see ... about the inner teen years ... you know it's a lot about relationships but it's also entertaining his name so if you can do huge into entertainment and so I think that a lot times Sep were like running to be the next Oprah when she realized Oprah was a reporter and anchor in ... Tennessee and she did a talk show call people are talking in Baltimore and she also did the news and then she went to Chicago and in her shop so it's not like she just posted up one day it was like I'm overnight and most UK number one she got a seated Donahue the NBA and she did her syndication deal and then she had to grow from it ... right so it was just overnight and so it I was easily and people are like ... a venture John MC ... Square I'm excited about getting my job ... but I hope you're on your way right now to Charleston South Carolina start your career ... you have to do what I did to be with you when I can ... exactly and that's what I just know or ... learn the craft Oracle ... learned the craft and enjoy enjoy learning it ... don't like this ... look at it ... no huge you should allow it ... if you don't own too because really when you look at it it's not as glamorous as it looks on ... in this in one of standing ... outside of hope somebody door for you know a day ... thus the glamorous world sitting on a quarter to open a quarter way ... you know ... when when the user passes away and are waiting for ... her family to arrive in the U haul was a downside for six hours to Spain ... there's no not like walk around with the family of weapons of unglamorous ... you know when the Oscars happened ... here is a lying on a red carpet of thousands of juror was squeezed in among them all ... out like walking with Brad Angelina down the red carpet ... so it's not glamorous ... which ... a ... lot that you have to be prepared for that moment witty it's ... that you can do ... you heard from them and am so Kevin Fraser the co host of the insider and the founder of kids Hollywood dot com thank you so much brother I appreciate you have me here you go attraction that were at the National Association of lecture was comfort and I said ... I he's gonna get to know you don't want to do stuff with ... us thank you for having a thank you Brian ... you don't appreciate a priest ... and with Kevin